DUP add hypocrisy to their guilt on empowering McGuinness
01 February 2011
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister:-
“Yesterday’s brief debate in the Assembly, on how the position of First Minister is now filled, saw disingenuous and deceptive contributions, particularly from the DUP. Mr Jonathan Bell had the effrontery to tell the House that the DUP at Westminster had opposed the St Andrews Agreement Bill, which made the change to the First Minister coming from the biggest party, rather than the biggest tradition. The reality is the very opposite.
“It is a matter oof indisputable record in parliament that not one DUP MP tabled a single amendment to oppose the change, not one spoke against the change and when it came to the House of Lords DUP peers voted for the unamended Clause 8, which enacted the change. Why, because the DUP saw creating the prospect of McGuinness as First Minister as a ‘clever device’ to coerce unionist into voting DUP. Hence, their shameful complicity in selling the Unionist title deeds to the office of First Minister.
“So, when yesterday some pretended the DUP had opposed the legislative change they were but adding a new layer of deception to their guilt on this issue. The threat of McGuinness as First Minister exists because the DUP wanted it so. Their support for the restoration of the Stormont institutions was so pivotal that they could have insisted on the removal of this change, but they consciously and deliberately choose to acquiesce.”
For a fuller exposition on what actually happened see: http://www.jimallister.org/default.asp?blogID=2069
